1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of displaying a plurality of screens in a single display unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known functions of display units, such as liquid crystal displays, include a function of simultaneously displaying a plurality of images in a single display screen (hereinafter referred to as a “multi-screen display function”).
As the multi-screen display function, PinP (Picture in Picture) and PoutP (Picture out Picture) are known, for example.
In recent years, the number of images simultaneously displayed by means of the multi-screen display function and a layout form of the images have become diverse.
Hereinafter, an example of a procedure of the multi-screen display function operated by a user will be described.
In a case where a plurality of broadcast programs are displayed in a single screen, the user operates remote controller so that a screen display mode is switched from a single-screen display mode (a mode in which a single broadcast program is displayed in a single screen) to a multi-screen display mode.
Note that when the multi-screen display mode is selected, a plurality of regions for displaying a plurality of broadcast programs are defined in the screen.
The user operates the remote controller so as to select one of the regions displayed in the screen.
Then, the user allocates a desired broadcast program to the selected region.
As another example of a procedure of the multi-screen display function operated by the user, a display-layout selection apparatus which has a function of automatically changing display layout is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-225301.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-247954 discloses a technique of automatically performing multi-screen display when a user frequently presses channel buttons of a television set.
In this multi-screen display function, there arises a problem in that as the number of content items which are simultaneously displayed increases, an operation for selecting display regions and an operation for allocating broadcast programs become complicated.